Bride of the Alpha (10 page)

hungrily, their hands roving over the women’s bodies, and the women crying out in pleasure. Couples

writhing on the ground.

“You should have thought of that before you misbehaved, “ Max taunted, and spanked me again. Hard.

It was too much. I felt as if rockets were exploding in my stomach. I screamed and the orgasm rolled

right over me, convulsing me, and I shuddered helplessly as wave after wave crashed through me. My body felt liquid and boneless, with intense pleasure flooding through me from head to toe.

I could hear the wolves in the crowd howling their approval, a chorus of shifter howls twisting up in

the air.

“Back to our bedroom. Now,” Maxwell growled, and he dragged me to the truck.

We made it about a quarter mile, before he pulled over. “Get out,” he growled. “I can’t wait.” The

musky smell of his arousal fogged the inside of the truck, tickling my nostrils and sending pulses of desire through me.

Breathless, I scrambled out of the truck. He followed me, spun me around and threw me up against the

truck. Then he kicked my legs apart and hiked my hem up. I’d lost my panties back on the porch, I realized.

I felt the warm breeze on my bare pussy.

“Who’s the boss?” he demanded. “Say it!”

“No!”

He smacked my butt, hard. “Good. I like it when you fight me. It gives me reason to punish you more.

Say it!”

He smacked me again. My stinging flesh cried out in protest.

“You are!” I choked out, clutching the edge of his pickup truck bed, and he rammed his swollen cock

inside me.

With a few quick, savage thrusts, he was buried all the way in, and he wrapped his arm around my

stomach, and braced himself against the truck with one hand. He began pumping, harder and harder.

Every thrust sent a lightning bolt of ecstasy stabbing through me. I moaned, pushing back against him.

“Like that, baby?” he groaned. “Oh, God, you are so tight. Oh yeah. Oh yeah…”

“Harder,” I gasped, and he obliged, pumping into me so hard that the truck rocked. I felt the liquid heat gathering again, swelling and expanding inside my stomach.

“Yes,” I hissed, and I felt my orgasm pulsing through me, an unstoppable wave that crashed over me. I

felt myself convulsing, the muscles inside me rippling and squeezing his cock.

Then he exploded, flooding me with his come. I felt the hot stickiness seeping out of me, running down

the inside of my thighs. His harsh breathing in my ear was ecstasy. I loved knowing how much I turned him

on.

He hugged me to him hard. We were both drenched with sweat, and I could feel his sticky cum drying

on my thighs. Somehow he’d torn one strap of my dress without me even noticing it.

“I need a shower,” I moaned. “And clothing. You keep ripping my clothes.”

“You know how humans joke about keeping their wives barefoot and pregnant? I want you naked,

barefoot, and pregnant, all the time.” He bit my neck, and licked it, and I let out a whimper.

A car drove by us, and I could see the people in the car looking at us.

I yelped and squirmed in his arms, but he held me tightly in place, and bit me again. “Everyone can see us!” I panted.

“Everyone can see that the Alpha satisfies his woman. You’re a very good influence on the pack,” he

said. “It’s definitely a very ‘make love, not war’ vibe you’re bringing.”

Chapter Ten

“You’re a huge hit around here,” Max said as we walked towards the group of people gathered for

breakfast at the picnic table. Apparently whenever the weather was nice, which it was most days, people liked to meet up here before heading off to work.

“By the way, why are you walking funny?” he added.

“You know why I’m walking funny. Makeup sex, you bastard,” I groaned. “Good Lord. You’re an

animal!”

“Imagine that,” he snickered. Hmph. He looked way too smug and pleased with himself. Everyone at the

table turned to wave at us, and I felt a wave of emotion welling up inside me. I’d only been here a few days and I felt more welcome than I ever had with my pack back home. Was this really real? Could this last?

There was no way that all of these people were faking it.

I paused.

“Tell me something?” I said to Max.

“What’s that?”

“When you left the other day to go take care of some business…were you going to meet up with an old

girlfriend? Or a new girlfriend? Or any kind of girlfriend?”

Maxwell shook his head in amusement. “Really, Josephine?”

Panic seized me. “I notice you’re not answering.”

“I thought it was obvious. I am not with any other women. I am married. To you. I am with you. I am

dedicated to making you have multiple orgasms every day. The rest of my time and energy is spent on the pack. Satisfied? You better be, or I’ll carry you back inside and satisfy you some more.”

A giggle bubbled up inside me. “Okay, okay. Come on, you said you get jealous. I can’t get jealous?”

He bent down and brushed his lips over mine. “You can get jealous. I like it. But also, trust me. I do not lie, and I do not cheat. Have fun in town.”

There were a few approving howls from the shifters milling around the picnic table, and he turned and

yelled “Hey, grow up!” at them, but he sounded cheerful.

We filled up our plates with food, and settle down at the table.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of Camille,” I said carefully, glancing at him to see his reaction. “I haven’t gotten an answer. Hopefully it’s just because she’s laying low. Have you heard anything?”

“Have I heard anything from Camille? Of course not. I’d never even spoken to her before I arranged the

marriage. I don’t have her contact information,” Maxwell said, digging into his food.

Well, I had other things to worry about. Max had gotten me a new cell phone, delivered to our house the day before. I’d called up Bess and arranged a meeting with her and Corwin in town, so we could talk about the fiasco with my date showing up at the compound. I needed to make sure that never happened again.

There was something else on my mind, though.

“The way Kray treated me when he thought I was Camille…” I said. “Do you think he’s treating other

women in his pack like that? I mean, that’s a dumb question, of course he is. Can anything be done about it? You’re an Alpha, you’re about to start your own pack, people will listen to you.”

Cody was sitting across the table, and he and Max exchanged a glance before answering me. Why? Was

I being totally paranoid?

Max hesitated, appearing to consider what to say. “It has occurred to me,” he said finally. “It’s not the easiest issue to resolve. You know how reluctant the Elders are to interfere in matters within one’s own pack. The way they see it, if you don’t like what’s going on in your pack, you can leave and join another pack.”

“But that’s bull,” I said heatedly. “That’s such a cop out. If you join another pack – the Alpha of your old pack is within his legal rights to issue a Death Challenge. Nobody wants to stand up to Kray. So then no pack would take you, which means as a lone wolf, you’re technically the leader of your own pack, which

means that Kray can issue the death challenge to you. So leaving his pack is like a death penalty.”

“You don’t need to worry about Kray’s pack,” Max said. “Leave it to me. Really. I’m the Alpha, it’s my

job to worry and your job to-”

“Don’t say it! There are children present!” I cut him off quickly.

“My goodness, Josephine, I was going to say that it’s your job to enjoy life, and help out with pack

issues. What did you think I was going to say?” Max asked, giving me an innocent, wounded expression.

“Ha,” I muttered, around a mouthful of eggs.

He was right about the Elders, which drove me crazy. They were all incredibly old – obviously, hence

the name – but I felt that they were completely out of touch with life in the 21st century. Shifters live to be about a hundred and fifty, and many of the Elders were still mired in the ways of the 19th century.

The Elders, and all of us, followed the rules of an ancient book called The Covenant, which was a list

of rules governing the behavior of shifters and punishments for various infractions, and spelling out when the Elders could interfere, and when they could not. Many parts of that book had been written in the Middle Ages, but it was treated as reverently as The Bible.

Unfortunately, the Elders held their position for life, and it was near impossible to get rid of them.

I just couldn’t let the whole issue with Kray go, though. “Have you talked to Kray at all? Is he still

pursuing the alliance?” I asked.

“My people have talked to his people. I haven’t talked to him personally. As of yesterday, he still wants to meet up and draw formal paperwork,” Max said.

“So if you and he are allied…could you help the members of his pack?”

“If anything, he’d expect me to side with him every time there’s some kind of dispute,” Max said. “Let

me worry about it, though. Really.” I could swear that he and Cody exchanged glances again.

A short time later, I was driving in to town in a car that Max had lent me.

I met up with Corwin and Bess in the parking lot outside of Flapjack Fannies’s. They were standing by

Bess’s car holding hands, doing the lovebird thing. For once, I didn’t feel the sting of envy that I usually felt when I saw them together.

However, at the moment I was feeling something else. Pissed off, is what I was feeling.

“What were you thinking?” I demanded, stomping up to them. “You nearly got Peter killed!”

Shock crossed Bess’ face. “What are you talking about?”

“Peter came to the Timber Valley compound and told them that he was there to pick me up for our

date!”

Bess turned to stare at Corwin in astonishment. “You did what?”

“Bess, I asked you to take care of it,” I said to her, struggling to stay calm. “What happened?”

“Corwin volunteered to help out. He was supposed to contact Peter.” She leveled a glare at him. “What.

The hell. Were you thinking?”

He flushed, and looked angry and defensive. “I was thinking that this fake marriage thing is dangerous

for our best friend, and we need to get her out of it. I wanted to demonstrate to that uber-Alpha asshole that the marriage is obviously fake, and it needs to end now. I wanted to rub his nose in the lie.”

“Corwin, you moron!” I yelled. “It was none of your business, and even if it was, which it wasn’t, you

could have gotten Peter killed! That was a total dick move on your part!”

“Really, what were you thinking?” Bess’s eyes were wide with shock. “That was a terrible idea, Corwin.

You were risking Peter’s life to make a point.”

Corwin’s face flushed, and his expression turned ugly. “You know what I grew up with, Josephine. I

can not stand by and watch that happen. Not again.”

I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and let it out slowly. I balled up my fists and then released them.

Corwin’s father was a violent, psychotic shifter who had beaten Corwin’s mother regularly, finally

injuring her so much that she’d ended up being hospitalized for several months. She came out permanently deaf in one ear, limping on a broken right leg that hadn’t healed properly, because Corwin’s father had locked her in her room and refused to let her seek help for weeks. Corwin had begged and cried; Corwin’s father had beaten him too, and chained him to a heavy table. Finally, when Corwin’s father had passed out drunk, Corwin had managed to escape and seek help.

“I know what you grew up with, and I am sorry about that,” I said. “I really am. However, you can’t let that influence you into making really, really bad decisions. And that was a bad decision. It was not fair to Peter, who could have gotten killed. He did nothing to deserve that. It was not fair to me, because it made me look absolutely terrible in front of Maxwell’s entire pack. It was very disrespectful to Maxwell, who has been nice enough to agree to go through with this whole fake marriage thing to help out Camille, a shifter that he’s never even met before.” At least, I hoped he’d never met her before.

Corwin shoved his hands in his pockets, scowled at the ground and didn’t say anything.

“Did you think about what could happen to Camille if this whole charade were exposed, by the way?” I

demanded. “If Kray’s pack hears about this, he’s going to start looking for her, and she’s going to be in deep trouble.”

“So you have to sacrifice your happiness for Camille?” Corwin demanded. “Why don’t you ever put

yourself first?”

I swallowed hard. “First of all, I am not sacrificing my happiness. I’m actually having a good time with Maxwell. Yes, he’s a big, macho Alpha jerk, but it’s kind of sexy. I like him way more than I thought I would. His family has been very welcoming.”

“We’re your family.” Bess said it in kind of a pouty voice, her lip quavering. It occurred to me for the first time ever that it wasn’t just that I needed her and Corwin; maybe she needed me to need her. She came from an uber-wealthy family with servants, and a mother who was a control freak who micro-managed

everything. She’d been desperate to leave home so she could prove that she could live on her own. Her

mother had even made her start college a year late because she was sure Bess wasn’t ready.

Maybe taking the big sister role for me was something that Bess really needed.

“You’re my best friends in the world,” I assured her, grabbing her hands. “You both mean the world to

me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want a relationship of my own, though.”

Corwin stood with his arms folded, glaring at the ground like a chastened child. He was still sulking.

“You’re not…you’re not actually going to stay here when the three weeks are up, are you?” Bess asked

suddenly, looking worried.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I said.